The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1887-05-01

Are You the fellow that wrote the let
teri" he asked
with your permission, / am" the
young man replied, with . marked Ger
man accent II think yOu would find II
to your own advantage not to refuse me
the interview"
.sAll right; come in. "
He turned around briskly and passed
through the ground glass door to the inner
office leaving the German to follow. Mr..
Hardness was, like most Of the bonanza
men of the Pacific coast, of a sanguine
| and adventurous temperament, but scantily
| equipped with education. He was ready
for anything in which there was money,
I and no proposition in which money was
| involved was too daring for his considera-
| ton He was young and already twenty
times a millionaire. To his visitor he
seemed the very incarnation OF the hearty
| generous, slam-bang recklessness Of the
Pacific coast. 1t would have surprised
| him, no doubt, IL he had suspected that
| this spectacled, unpretentiOus looking for
| eigner had made a csTlplete inventory of
his characteristics FROM merely seeing him
| in the street and from hearing the rumor
| of his daring maneuvers on the stock ex-
change.
well" Hardness remarked, fire
/
! Half an hour" said the German,
firmly.
well, fire away, man. Time at this
hour Of the day is worth a thousand dol
lars "a minute"
s'An right Then will be brief My
name is Heinrich Wachtmeister. / was
two years ago tutor in chemistry at the
university of Utrecht. In that capacity
| was led to make certain experiments
| which resulted in my discovering what
thousands have sought for in vain-the
secret of making gold. You open your
eyes, no doubt. in wonder. So did /. The
gold was found in my possession, together
with IA number of metallic plates and in
struments, which the stupid officials con-
cluded were intended for counterfeidng.
They would not believe my story, of
course that I made the gold For coun-
terfeitinS l was accordingly tried and sen
fenced to two years imprisonment.
have just now served out my sentence"
You are a jailbird, then It's pity
you didn't stay longer"
''Wait a moment and You will see. +"
DR. wachtmeister here eL erred upon q
detailed explanation Of his chemical ex-
perirnents, declaring that gold had never
been proved to be an element, and that, il
il was q compound, there was no reason
why il should not be made. Science had
solved many riddles in modern times
which to the past were insoluble. He
begged Mr.. Hardness to grant him the
privilege Of proving to him and Eve Of his
friends, whom Mr.. Hardness should him
self appoint, that his statements were
true. He asked for no salary emolu-
ments, but only desired to associate Mr..
Hardness renowned name with his own
in the enterprise, which, IL he carried IL on
alone, would expose him to fresh difficul
ties with the law. There was such . ring
of sincerity and earnestness in his speech
that the millionaire was more than half
persuaded. He declared that he would
let him know In q week whether he could
grant his request and instantly cabled to
Utrecht to ascertain whether the story re-
lating to the imprisonment and trial for
counterfeiting were true He received
the next day a cablegram cOrroborating
the story in all particulars A second ap-
pointment was accordingly made, and the
test in the presence of witnesses agreed
upon Wachtmeister 1egged as q favor
that some of these might be scientific ex-
perts, whose judgment had weight. This,
too, was readily conceded.
Ill
The momen tous day at last arrived. In
Hardness Office half q dozen of the
millionaire's dependents were gathered,
all pledged to absolute secrecy, on the
penalty of losing their patrons favor.
Watehmeister arrived at the appointed
hour, carrying a starch box under his arr
and followed by a boy who carried a small
blast furnace, about the size of a plumbers
melting poi. He was introduced to each
member of the company, among whom
there was one who had been induced To
personate the scientific expert. For HarK-
ness, who like most men Of his stamp, had
small faith in scientists, had concluded
that no such one might readily steal the
secret (which he was now convinced was
well worth stealing, and he had, for this
reason, male, for the nonce, q professor
of chemistry out of one of his clerks
named Sawyer. Watchmeister i.nmedi-
ately engaged this gentleman in CONVERSE
ton, and measured in an instant, the eX
tent of his scientific requirements.
The little Introductory speech which he
made have not the space to repeat; but
it was very clever.
Now, gentlemen" he said In con-
clusion, ." / must commit myself to your
honor beg of you to examine carefully
the contents of this box. You see that it
contains some black sand-a very COM
mon article, which is found in abundance
round about in the state. Here hold in
my hand a small bottle of sulphate Of iron.
But. pardon me, l came near
forgetting. I merely wish TO convince
yos that my process is above board
require of me that 1 shall explain it to
you"
He thereupon stepped b.hind . screen
and Invested himself of all his clothes,
which he handed out to the company, beg
ging them to make sure that they con-
tanned no particle of the noble metal One
by one his garments We're returned to him; |
then the furnace, the box and the bottles,
each after having been subjected to q rigid |
q a min alton \ shyinv,a hat
thing was fair and square. There was an |
almost solemn silence in the room while |
the alehetnist labored behind the screen. |
Every insignificant little sound was lis |
tened to with excited interest The crack |
ling of flames was heard, and the steady |
blowing of the little bellows; then at last |
little cautious hammer blows, and before |
thirty minutes had elapsed Wachtmeister /
stepped forward holding n large bar of |
yellow gold in his hand. A chorus of ex- |
cited oaths and ordinations greeted the /
sleam of the Precious metal. Hardness |
seized il eagerly, scratched it with his /
nail, cut it with his knife, and, having /
satisfied himself that il was genuine, L
passed it around until all had had a chance Il
to examine il. The bar was then sent to u
the assayer, with the request that he re
turn his analysis at the earliest possible /
moment. banquet had been condition 1
ally arranged for the party in the evening, |
and ~ soon as the assay was found to be
the bar being valued at /
81, 100, Mr. Hardness and his guests re-
paired to fashionable hotel, where the |
great event was appropriately celebrated.
The whole future of humanity was revolu- |
'ionizcd and all social problems solved by /
this discovery. The conversation and the /
toasts turned chiefly upon the necessity |
of limiting the production, so as not to |
give too severe a shock to the commercial /
t,..Ar